Spreading the gift of warmth

Bellmorite Carine Firestone took to the stage at K.J. Farrell’s on Dec. 20 for a charity event that she organized to help keep Long Islanders in need warm this winter.

Jack Healy/Herald

The staff of Dina’s Cleaners, on Merrick Road in Bellmore, cleaned all of the donated items for free.

Courtesy Carine Firestone

Leslie Jacobs and Jennifer Galligan brought clothing for the event.

Jack Healy/Herald

Helen Tarantino donated hats and scarves that she knitted.

Jack Healy/Herald

Greta Guarton, executive director of the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, KJ Farrell’s owner Kevin Sheehan and Carine Firestone, a Bellmore resident who organized an event to benefit the charity at the restaurant, gathered for a day of philanthropy and fun.

Jack Healy/Herald

The Owen family stopped by to listen to musicians play for a cause.

Jack Healy/Herald

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One Bellmore resident recently brought the community together with an important goal in mind: spreading the “gift of warmth” this winter.

Carine Firestone, a local singer-song writer and comedienne, organized “Music for Mittens and More,” which was held at K.J. Farrell’s on Dec. 20. Residents came out in droves to watch musicians perform and donate hundreds of pieces of winter clothing, which will be given out to those in need on Long Island this month.

This is not the first time that Firestone has collected winter clothing. In fact, the idea for the recent fundraiser was born when she found a picture of a “mitten tree” that he started at Waverly Park Elementary School in East Rockaway several years ago.

Firestone said she used to read a book of the same title to her daughter. The story, which begins with an older woman noticing that a little boy had no mittens, led her to collect winter clothing in the community she used to reside in.

Around the same time, Firestone attended a comedy event benefitting Shoes for All –– an Albertson-based nonprofit that collects shoes for families in need. While thinking about past and more recent events, she decided she wanted to organize one of her own once again –– and get her musical friends involved.

“I said to myself, ‘You now have around you all of these incredibly talented people who are in the same frame of mind,’” she said. “All of my friends who are musicians couldn’t wait to be a part of it.”

Dozens of bands and performers took the stage at Farrell’s for the fundraiser, which was held from noon to 6 p.m. Local folks who came to watch the performances donated gently worn and new coats, hats, socks, scarves, gloves and mittens when they walked in the door.

Firestone said residents filled the restaurant all day. “There is just something about music: it brings people together,” she said. “People love to see live music on Long Island; it’s a big deal.”